Table of contents for 2021-10-14 in Mercury

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za LONDON-listed Grit Real Estate Income Group, which has about 60 percent of its shareholders in South Africa, said yesterday that it had issued a bond to raise up to $31.5 million (R472.3m) to acquire, expand and redevelop the Orbit Africa warehousing and manufacturing facility in Nairobi, Kenya, on a sale and leaseback basis. Grit is a pan-African real estate company that invests in and manages a portfolio of assets in carefully selected African countries. The bond was raised from Ethos Mezzanine Partners and BluePeak Private Capital. The total purchase consideration of $53.6m would be settled by way of $25m in senior debt finance negotiated with the International Finance Corporation and $28.6m through the perpetual note issuance, Grit said in a statement yesterday. Grit planned to…

Sihle Mavuso sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za SUPPORTERS of former president Jacob Zuma are hoping he will attend a welcome-home rally in Durban today. Zuma was granted medical parole on September 5, two months into his 15-month sentence for contempt of the Constitutional Court. His parole, which was sanctioned by former correctional services boss Arthur Fraser, is now being challenged in court by the DA, AfriForum and the Helen Suzman Foundation. They all want the decision by Fraser to be set aside as they claim he overstepped the mark and abused his powers to grant Zuma parole. Among those expected to attend today’s rally are senior members of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association such as Carl Niehaus, RET Forces members including Nkosentsha Shezi and KwaZulu-Natal Interfaith Council members including Bishop Vusi Dube…

Nomonde Zondi nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za A woman whose mother was among the victims of a horror bus crash on the N3 on Tuesday says she is shattered by her death. Ten people died and scores were injured in the crash on the N3 near Tugela Bridge. Bus company Eldos Coaches said in a statement on Tuesday that the driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle after a blow-out of a front tyre. The coach had left Durban Station at about 6.45am and was travelling to Johannesburg when the crash occurred. Speaking to The Mercury from Botswana yesterday, Kagelelo Mokalake said her mother, Dipuo Mokalake, 54, had been travelling to Johannesburg where she was going to catch another bus to Botswana. She said she could not describe the pain she was feeling as…

Ebrahim Essa | Durban To add to Mr Markandan’s complaint (The Mercury, October 12) on the effects of gambling, I have this brief story that occurred in the early 1970s. My dad used all his life savings to put up a big building for factory use in Teakwood Road. He had known of plans to remove the then cul-de-sac of this road to convert it as a direct route to the harbour so it could become a lucrative rent-generator. None of that actually happened. The architect and engineers were all white people those days. So when it came to the stage of near-completion and roof-wetting time, my dad gave me some cash and asked me to buy some “refreshments” for the building team. I expected Coke, Sparletta, samosas,…

Love prevails. I am not referring to the kind of love associated with romance, although thankfully, such love also often prevails. I am referring to a love that is beyond romantic attraction. This love is usually beyond humans, out of their reach, unless they know first-hand something about suffering, about loss, about hurt, about loneliness, about abandonment. The love that prevails is born (sometimes) in people who know how painful life can be. I say sometimes because tough events can also produce bitterness and not love. Prevailing love is not about good feelings or an emotional high and nor is it about being known or rewarded for good deeds. The kind of love I am referring to “comes home” in the wake of suffering and prevails because it has learnt…

Sibusiso Mboto sibusiso.mboto@inl.co.za PROFESSOR Anthony Staak, who has been appointed as an independent assessor to look into the affairs of Mangosuthu University of Technology, has begun his forensic investigation. Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi confirmed that the assessor began the investigation on October 1, and had been given a 45-day period in which to conclude it. This means the report is likely to be finished by mid-November. The terms of reference for the investigation, which were published in the August Government Gazette, come in the wake of problems that continue to engulf the institution, especially at senior leadership level. “The minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation appoints Professor Anthony Staak as an independent assessor to conduct an investigation into the affairs of the…

Karen Singh karen.singh@inl.co.za A SCRAP metal exporter has been ordered by the Durban Magistrate’s Court to pay a R600 000 fine for exporting steel scrap metal without obtaining an export permit. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said Gautam Lal, 40, contravened the International Trade Administration Act and on two occasions he also contravened the Customs and Excise Act in February and March 2020. NPA regional spokesperson Natasha Kara said Lal was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for a period of five years. He had pleaded guilty to two counts of exporting steel scrap metal without obtaining an export permit. In giving Lal the five years wholly suspended sentence, the court imposed the following conditions: He must not be convicted of any offence involving a contravention of the International…

Fears are understandable, but unfounded, and can cost lives IT IS understandable that people some people are hesitant to be vaccinated against Covid-19. In the age of social media and mobile communication, when information on any topic is available at our fingertips, it is almost impossible to avoid misinformation. It is all too easy for knowledge to be contested and myths to be propagated. When this happens, it can be very difficult to know what to believe and what to do. And yet, in the case of Covid-19, the stakes could not be higher. South Africa’s local government elections are taking place on November 1. There are fears that the preceding political rallies could become “super-spreader” events that usher in a fourth wave of the pandemic. At the same time,…

Activists from Insulate Britain, an environmental campaign group demanding the government insulate and retrofit homes across the UK, again blocked a highway encircling London yesterday, infuriating drivers and causing traffic chaos during rush hour. The group said 40 people had returned to the streets for the 13th time over the past four weeks, fully aware their protest was in breach of the injunction granted to National Highways Authorities on September 22. “They (protesters) are demanding that Boris (UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson) gets on with the job of insulating Britain’s homes starting with the homes of the poorest people in the country,” it said. According to the group, 8 500 deaths on average during winter in the UK are a result of cold homes and thousands of families “have to…

NEW South Wales: Two teenage boys have been charged after 14 kangaroos were beaten to death on the southern coast of Australia’s New South Wales state. Police were called to Long Beach, a sleepy beachside suburb about 275km south of Sydney, on Saturday in response to reports that a number of kangaroos had been killed. The officers found five adult kangaroos and one baby kangaroo dead, according to police. Police were told another seven kangaroos and one baby had been found dead in the nearby Maloney’s Beach area. The pair will appear in a children’s court next month on charges of killing animals.…

Thami Magubane thami.magubane@inl.co.za THOUSANDS of motorists who were issued with traffic fines after breaking the law on KwaZulu-Natal roads may have escaped scot-free as the Department of Transport has failed to capture traffic infringements amounting to more than R150 million into its system. The office of the Auditor-General revealed this at a meeting with the department this week. It said that the department had failed to capture traffic violations which amounted to R158m. The department reported revenue of R465m from traffic violations, but the A-G said it could have collected R158m more. But the Transport Department’s chief financial officer Wayne Evans yesterday disputed many aspects of the A-G’s findings. The revelation outraged political parties, which described this as an indication that the department’s staff did not take their work seriously.…

PAT MCKRILL | Camperdown ON SAfm news this morning, we learnt of the government’s intention to legislate for the use of only South African-manufactured cement on all government-approved building projects. Using imported cement in such instances could henceforth be illegal. Based on its impeccable record of corruption and institutionalised theft, if we needed to know who would benefit from this proposed law, all that would be required would be to obtain a list of the movers and shakers associated with the cement-manufacturing industry. From the list, we would be able to compile a comprehensive list of all the ANC cadres, associates and relatives linked to the industry. No doubt they’ve been told what’s in store for them. Line up comrades, here comes another gravy train. Alan Paton where…

MUHAMMAD OMAR | Durban North eThekwini’s municipal rates are double what you would pay in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and a good few smaller municipalities in South Africa. EThekwini sells electricity to landlords who, in turn, must resell to end- users. The eThekwini rate is a much higher price than Eskom-supplied areas. The catch is eThekwini does not disconnect accounts in arrears, often saddling the landlord or future purchaser or even writing off the arrears. A classic example was about a year or two ago where a property had arrears of more than R2 million and was operating normally. It will be interesting to see the current outstanding accounts that are still being supplied. Now it seems the council cannot afford protective gear for its fire department. Yet, at…

A COUPLE in Bosnia-Herzegovina have found the answer to pesky door-to-door encyclopaedia salesmen and others – they’ve designed and built a house that can simply spin away from unwelcome visitors. The house in Srbac is, in fact, a labour of love on the part of hubby Vojin Kusic, according to Associated Press. His wife, Liubica (“Loved One”), had always been bothered in their previous home by the fact that when you had bedrooms facing the sun – very desirable – it also meant having a living room that faces away from the road and you can’t see guests arriving. Vojin built a new rotating house that could go a full circle, allowing Liubica to have any view she chooses. He built his rotating house by himself, using electric motors and…

Siyabonga Mkhwanazi siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za The bail hearing of former Mpumalanga MEC for Agriculture, Land reform and Environmental Affairs, Mandla Msibi, has been adjourned until today after a bomb scare in court. Msibi was into his second day of the bail hearing at the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court when the bomb scare occurred. The investigating officer was in the witness box giving testimony on events leading to the shooting of two people in Mpumalanga. Msibi has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with a shooting in August in Mbombela (Nelspruit). His two co-accused, Joseph Charlie Ngwenya, 35, and Tshepo Matsane, 30, are out on bail. Msibi was asked by the ANC in the province to step aside after his arrest on the murder charges.…

A Hazyview good Samaritan was in the right place at the right time when a boat carrying four people capsized in Cape Vidal bay, St Lucia. Jurgens Lubbe, 47, who owns a rafting company in Hazyview, was kite-boarding when he saw people on the beach pointing towards the water on Saturday, said the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). Jan Hoffman, the NSRI St Lucia station commander, said Lubbe noticed the upturned boat with two men clinging on to the upturned hull and a man and woman in the water nearby. The NSRI St Lucia duty crew were activated. The people who were on the boat included the 62-year-old owner and skipper from Durban; his son and the son’s girlfriend as well as a family friend. The NSRI St Lucia sea…

Sonri Naidoo sonri.naidoo@inl.co.za A WITNESS in the Nathaniel Julies murder trial described seeing blood on grass and blood-stained fingerprints on sand after his death. “I saw his blood on parts of the grass and his blood-stained finger prints on the truck and in the sand,” said Tahirah Kaldine, a state witness in the trial of three police officers over the killing of the teen who had Down syndrome. After failing to appear before the court on October 4, Kaldine took to the stand yesterday to testify at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court. A warrant of arrest was issued for Kaldine because of her failure to appear before the court; she then handed herself over on October 8. Kaldine told the court: “I was standing outside one of the neighbours’ houses,…

This may sound like a subterfuge, but technically speaking, universities will essentially be admitting grade 10s in 2022. Unfortunately, the class of 2021 has had to endure two consecutive turbulent years. On March 23, 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the first Covid-19 lockdown and from then to date, we have been wobbling between levels 5 and 1. By the time of the announcement, the class of 2021 was doing Grade 10, and they were robbed of an opportunity to be taught matric content as it has been the tradition in the previous years. The Department of Basic Education encourages schools to teach matric content at this stage (Grade 11) to better prepare pupils for their final matric exams to commence the following year. Even their exam papers are ordinarily set…

California firefighters scrambled overnight yesterday to battle a fast-moving blaze that has scorched more than 5 400 hectares and prompted evacuation orders since it started on Monday. Burning in a dry, scrub-filled canyon about 30km northwest of Santa Barbara, the Alisal Fire was just 5% contained, said the US Forest Service. More than 765 firefighters have been assigned to the blaze, the latest in what has already been a devastating wildfire season. “The main constraint has been heavy winds that have limited safe access to suppress the fire and limited the use of aircraft to engage and support fire suppression,” a report said. The cause of the fire, which began near the Alisal Reservoir on Monday, remains under investigation, the state’s fire agency Cal Fire said. By late July, the…

Edward West edward.west@inl.co.za FAMOUS Brands, the branded food services franchisor, said yesterday headline earnings per share (Heps) for the six months to August 31, 2021, were expected to increase between 329 cents and 349c when compared to the prior comparable period, after its operations started recovering from the impact of the pandemic across all its businesses. This would translate in Heps of between 89 to 109c, compared with the equivalent of a 240c per share loss reported at the end of the comparable period last year. “Across our trading markets, in South Africa, rest of Africa and the Middle East and the UK, the negative financial impact of the pandemic and resultant lockdowns and trading restrictions as well as the civil unrest in SA have materially impacted the group’s…

Yogashen Pillay yogashen.pillay@inl.co.za While KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala yesterday welcomed the national government’s decision to allow sports fans back into stadiums, he said that upping the Covid-19 vaccination rate was the only way for more spectators to be able to watch live sports. Raising his concern about the low rate of vaccinations, Zikalala said: “It is unthinkable and most unfortunate that after so many lives have been lost to Covid-19 while we did not have a vaccine; when we eventually find it, people then become reluctant to come forward. They do not want to get protected against this deadly virus.” Zikalala was speaking during a virtual media briefing yesterday on the state of Covid-19 in the province. He said the province had observed a decline in the number of…

THYAGARAJ MARKANDAN | Kloof The DA was wrong with its Phoenix posters: “The ANC called you racists”, “The DA calls you heroes”. DA KZN chairperson Dean Macpherson said those who defended themselves when the state abandoned them were heroes. He needs his head examined. But he got a rebuff from the party executive, which ordered the offensive “racist” posters to be removed. In an about-turn, Macpherson apologised for the posters and said they were removing them. But the damage had already been done. There was widespread condemnation of the DA’s racist posters. The ANC will obviously use the posters to its advantage to score maximum points against the opposition. It’s going to hurt the DA at the polls. Those who wanted to…

SIMON TIMOTHY DEHAL | Verulam Durban is the crown jewel of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Africa, especially as it is a thriving and bustling port city and gateway to many parts of the world. In the main, I am a proud Durban resident. We have much to be proud of as eThekwini Municipality (the only metro in KZN and the only one in the country with a non-executive mayorship), but sadly, in some instances, we are seriously wanting. Thus, I address this communication to both the political and non-political city leadership, headed by the mayor and city manager, respectively. Please up your game, take necessary, meaningful action and decisions, and make Durban a renowned international city and tourist mecca, putting it and its peoples foremost and setting aside…

Before they kick a ball to start matches this season, soccer players in Romania’s top tier are carrying stray dogs onto the pitch as part of an initiative to find homes for abandoned animals. The campaign – dubbed “Fill The Gap in Your Life” – also aims to highlight the problem of unwanted dogs in the south eastern European nation, where shelters are filled to capacity and strays have long roamed the streets. “We are hoping to motivate the people that might see the dogs brought by the players in their arms and so they would adopt them,” said Anca Floarea, a counsellor at a local animal protection office. “Until now, from the 18 dogs presented at the matches three were adopted and three more were inquired about, we…

Loyiso Sidimba loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has appointed retired Justice Dikgang Moseneke, former deputy chief justice, to head a rationalisation committee to help improve access to justice that could lead to more seats of the high court. Lamola announced the establishment of the committee, which will include retired Western Cape High Court deputy judge president Jeanette Traverso, retired chief magistrate Renuka Subban and retired deputy national director of public prosecutions Dr Silas Ramaite. The committee’s terms of reference were published in the Government Gazette in June. The terms of reference direct it to inquire into, report on and make recommendations on the areas in which the main or local seat exercise jurisdiction, taking into account the distances travelled by litigants and the costs they incur to access such services.…

THE historic World Health Organization’s recommended malaria vaccine marks the beginning of a promising era, especially for sub-Saharan Africa where it has stalked the region, causing immense suffering for centuries. Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in the region, with more than 260 000 African children dying from it annually – most under the age of 5. Sub-Saharan Africa was home to 94% of malaria cases and deaths in 2019, according to the WHO. The announcement of the vaccine recommendation aims to change this in our lifetime. The WHO last week recommended the widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission. Since 2019, researchers have been carrying out…

Paris: The world is failing to invest in energy on the scale needed to escape catastrophic climate change and avoid sharp increases in fossil fuel prices, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned. In a report just weeks before a key climate change summit known as COP26, the agency said investment in green energy like solar and wind was falling short of what’s needed to keep the planet from warming up significantly. At the same time, spending on fossil fuels was lower than needed if current demand growth for oil, natural gas and coal continues. “There is a looming risk of more turbulence for global energy markets,” Fatih Birol, the head of the agency, said yesterday. “We are not investing enough to meet future energy needs.” The stark warning comes…

Colombo: Sri Lankan authorities have dropped charges, including conspiracy to murder, against a former navy chief linked to 11 killings that drew international condemnation, the country’s attorney-general announced yesterday. The investigation against Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda was part of a case that cast a spotlight on extrajudicial killings during Sri Lanka’s 37-year ethnic war that ended in 2009. Attorney-General Sanjay Rajaratnam told the Court of Appeal that the State would not pursue charges against Karannagoda, who was first indicted in 2019.…